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BASEBALL: Murphysboro holds off Pinckneyville 5-4

Posted May 03, 2012 11:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Panthers had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the seventh but couldn't get the tying run across, falling 5-4 at Murphsyboro on Wednesday to end their four-game winning streak.

Pinckneyville led on three different occasions in the game, but a couple of passed balls and a triple to right field that could have been caught led to some tough runs against Panthers' starter C.J. Opp.

"It's miscues," said PCHS head baseball coach Alan Engelhardt. "Their third run scores on two passed balls and a sac fly, their last couple runs score because we let one drop behind us in right field. That's just the way it works against a good team. They're the #2 in their Regional. You just can't make mistakes like that."

Opp and Evan Chapman both had RBI singles in the top of the first to put Pinckneyville up 2-0, but the Red Devils would tie it up with a two-run homer by Jake Stewart in the second.

Joey Burris walked and scored on Opp's double in the third for a 3-2 Panther lead, but again Murphy responded in the bottom of the third. Jacob Biard singled then wound up at third base after two passed balls, setting up Mitchell Rose for the sacrifice fly RBI.

Marian Brammeier reached on an error in the top of the fourth and came home on a single by Luke Miller, putting the Panthers up 4-3.

In the bottom of the fifth, Jacob Baird sent a fly ball to deep right field that was misplayed and ruled a triple, then Kyle Miller drove the ball to deep center for a sac fly to tie the game at 4-4. Rose then doubled and came in Stewart's single for the go-ahead run.

Opp pitched out of a jam in the sixth before Pinckneyville threatened in the seventh, loading the bases with one out after singles from Burris and Opp and Chapman taking a hit by pitch. The potential rally was halted as Noah Hepp went down swinging and Brammeier lined out to first base.

Opp went six innings and allowed eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts. He added three hits at the plate (3-3, 2B, BB, 2 RBI) on his eighteenth birthday.

"When C.J. was down they didn't hit him, and when he got up they hit him pretty well," Engelhardt said. "I thought the sixth inning was his best inning. For whatever reason, I thought the sixth inning he focused in better than he had all day."

Burris (1-3, BB, 2 R), Chapman (1-2, BB, RBI), Miller (1-3, HBP, RBI), Hunter Queen (1-4, R) and Bryant Shute (1-4) also had hits for the Panthers.

"When we hit the ball the other way and up the middle we had success," said Engelhardt. "We got a little pull happy today. We saw (Carterville's Sammy) Stearns yesterday, we saw (Nashville's) John Goodrich on Friday, we've faced some of the top kids in Southern Illinois. We saw someone else today and I think we thought 'oh, we're going to rip it' and got out in front and popped up, struck out, things like that."

PCHS (12-12, 4-6) hosts Waltonville on Thursday and Harrisburg on Friday.

The Panthers also learned on Wednesday that they will face sixth-seeded Sparta on Monday, May 14 at 4:30 p.m. in Pinckneyville as part of the Du Quoin Class 2A Baseball Regional. The Bulldogs, of course, are the team that eliminated the Panthers in their first game of the 2011 postseason.

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